What Schools Do You Consider “Prestigious?”

[Anonymous]

What’s admirable about the Williams & Amherst students is that they probably could have gotten into more-famous schools that would be more impressive to friends, relatives, and employers who are not familiar with how elite the top liberal arts colleges are.

In an era when so many are ostentatious, this is no small matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a sense, the most prestigious colleges are those that relatively few people are even aware of. And the very few people for whom these schools are so familiar as to be household names of sorts are the highly, highly elite. They're the ultrawealthy with fortunes that originate a century ago, leaders of various foreign countries, CEOs of major brands, high-profile media figures and celebrities. A well-known and popular school can be prestigious to an extent, but Amherst's prestige is on another level because no one who is not a master of the universe has ever heard of it.

+1.

Maybe caring about college prestige is a vice, but the people talking as if Amherst, Williams and Bowdoin lack prestige have no business talking about prestige.

Depends upon one's definition of prestige.

If prestige is widespread respect, then no, Amherst, Williams, and Bowdoin are not prestigious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s admirable about the Williams & Amherst students is that they probably could have gotten into more-famous schools that would be more impressive to friends, relatives, and employers who are not familiar with how elite the top liberal arts colleges are.

In an era when so many are ostentatious, this is no small matter.

Why is this admirable ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s admirable about the Williams & Amherst students is that they probably could have gotten into more-famous schools that would be more impressive to friends, relatives, and employers who are not familiar with how elite the top liberal arts colleges are.

In an era when so many are ostentatious, this is no small matter.

You are weird. It's a good thing to choose a school that is a good fit, but admirable??

My kid was careless about LACs but chose a lower ranked school for better fit.

[Anonymous]

Increasingly less enamored with prestige and more focused on outcomes.

[Anonymous]

I think you get a pass for Wiliams and Amherst. But otherwise SLACs aren't really taken seriously

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s admirable about the Williams & Amherst students is that they probably could have gotten into more-famous schools that would be more impressive to friends, relatives, and employers who are not familiar with how elite the top liberal arts colleges are.

In an era when so many are ostentatious, this is no small matter.

Why is this admirable ?

+1
"Admirable" - I'm still laughing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s admirable about the Williams & Amherst students is that they probably could have gotten into more-famous schools that would be more impressive to friends, relatives, and employers who are not familiar with how elite the top liberal arts colleges are.

In an era when so many are ostentatious, this is no small matter.

That’s just silly.

[Anonymous]

Odd question. Are you trying to find a school to impress other parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you get a pass for Wiliams and Amherst. But otherwise SLACs aren't really taken seriously

What do you think makes the education one receives at a SLAC different from an Ivy League school which I presume you think people take seriously? Like is an Econ degree at Swarthmore bs while it’s serious business at Brown?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you get a pass for Wiliams and Amherst. But otherwise SLACs aren't really taken seriously

Swarthmore and Wellesley are also taken seriously. Pomona, at least on the west coast, too.
In today's era of multiple degrees, going to an LAC with a tight alumni network where you'll get a great education and then attending a "name" grad school works well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you get a pass for Wiliams and Amherst. But otherwise SLACs aren't really taken seriously

What do you think makes the education one receives at a SLAC different from an Ivy League school which I presume you think people take seriously? Like is an Econ degree at Swarthmore bs while it’s serious business at Brown?

30 or 40 years ago I might have understood what you mean. The leaders and people making hiring decisions back then that went to Harvard may not have heard of most LACs but with the major changes in college admissions since the late 80s, nearly everyone who attended an elite school is well aware of the other top schools. People at Stanford know Pomona is a great school and people at Harvard and Yale know Swarthmore and Amherst well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you get a pass for Wiliams and Amherst. But otherwise SLACs aren't really taken seriously

Swarthmore and Wellesley are also taken seriously. Pomona, at least on the west coast, too.
In today's era of multiple degrees, going to an LAC with a tight alumni network where you'll get a great education and then attending a "name" grad school works well.

This is stupid. Sure, the top 5 are respected more, just as Harvard is respected more than Cornell, or Duke is respected more than UNC, but I don’t think it’s at all reasonable to assert that there is some kind of cutoff. And in reality do you actually think there is a meaningful difference in the educational experience or faculty at say Swarthmore vs Haverford or Wellesley vs Barnard? Even if you want to look at the average standardized test scores of the top 30 lacs, the bottom of the list is maybe 50 points lower. So the 50th percentile kid at a top 5 school is the 75th percentile kid at 25-30 school. It’s not exactly night and day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HPSM (no Y)
Oxford
Cambridge
Wharton
Sciences Po
Georgetown SFS

This must be the same poster who loves to exclude Yale since everyone everywhere includes Y in HYP. Must have an ax to grind.

Waiting for the poster who adds C -- but it must absolutely be Caltech not Columbia which she hates obsessively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s admirable about the Williams & Amherst students is that they probably could have gotten into more-famous schools that would be more impressive to friends, relatives, and employers who are not familiar with how elite the top liberal arts colleges are.

In an era when so many are ostentatious, this is no small matter.

Not the two Amherst kids I know. Amherst was their best acceptance.